Reading “To Brooklyn Bridge” is intimidating and confusing at first. After several reads and research, the message of it is simple and clear. The poem is very short and littered with metaphors and far-fetched adjectives, but through breaking it down, I found that Crane is trying to say that the Brooklyn Bridge is a symbol of a manmade structure that can join together the fractured parts of society. The Brooklyn Bridge was finished in 1883, and at that time, it was the longest suspension bridge in the world, an architectural and engineering marvel. For Hart Crane, the bridge provides a symbol for the possibility of redeeming the modern world from the chains of money and commerce.
The poem makes you think about bridges in general. How often are bridges used as symbols in your life? Bridges are used to connect distant things: bridges to success, a bridge in time, among others. They always tell you not to “burn bridges”, in other words, don’t cut off ties with something completely. Once a bridge is burned, the only way to cross the gap is to build a new bridge. It makes you think about how crucial connections are to everything in our world.
